Lasagna

First, I want to thank everyone for their supportive comments. Trolls suck a lot of positive energy out of a blog, and I appreciate you all helping to fill it back up. I'm hesitant to close of anonymous comments altogether because there are people out there not familiar with blogging enough to have an account set up yet, and because I'm willing to let people post anonymously as long as they play nice. If it were to become a regular problem, I would reconsider.

We had a much better day today overall, despite a couple of potty "accidents". It's not the accidents that bother me so much, it's the attitude, and luckily all three of us girls had the right one today.

I made one of my favorite meals, lasagna. We ate it for dinner and it turned out marvelously, and life was good. Most people I know in real life make lasagna by going to the freezer case in their local supermarket and picking out something in a foil pan by Swanson's or Marie Calendar. I can't tell you how many times I have gone to other people's houses for special occasions and eaten store-bought lasagna, and it makes me a little sad. Homemade is so much better, and my particular recipe simply rocks my world.

There are about a million different ways to make lasagna, just as there are a million different techniques in knitting, but tonight I am going to share with you my particular lasagna-making ritual, including a pan that is safe for my multiple-food-allergic Julie to eat with gleeful abandon, or at least the kind of acceptance that ends with a relatively clear plate and unprompted utterance of the sentance "Thanks for making this for dinner, Mama."

My recipe is based on a combination of the ones that used to appear on the Creamette pasta boxes, but I was disappointed to find that they have changed the recipe since the last time I made it, probably about a year ago. I usually make multiple pans at one time, partly because I have to accomodate Julie's allergies so she gets a pan of her own, and partly because it freezes so well and is a mess to assemble, so why not make enough to last a month or so? Let's start off with the ingredients.

• 1-lb box lasagna pasta - either regular wheat or rice-based. Tinkyada and EnerG both make acceptable rice versions, and you'll use about 3/4 box per 9X13 pan.
• 1 lb ground meat - you can use italian sausage, ground beef, or any other ground meat that you prefer. Tonight I used half ground beef and half really high-quality chorizo from the co-op.
• A 25-26 oz. jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce - if you're making more than one pan, go ahead and buy one extra jar so you can be generous. I like Muir Glen Spicy Tomato, but you can pick your own favorite or use homemade if you've got it.
• Ricotta cheese 15 oz container - I buy the lower fat, but under no circumstances should you buy fat free (yuck!)
• 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• Various veggies, pick which ones you find acceptable - onion, red and green bell peppers, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant

Let's get cooking!

First, go ahead and brown your meat while you're prepping the veggies. Get the meat nice and safely cooked all the way through, then drain off and discard all the grease. Chop up the onion, peppers and mushrooms, slice thinly the zucchini and eggplant. I usually buy the spinach prechopped in one of those frozen bricks, so thaw that out on the counter or in the microwave and squeeze every drop of water you can get out of it. Remember, you don't have to include any veggies at all, but the more you can include the better it will be for you, and the more complex the flavor of your meal. Really, most of them will be disguised by the cheese and sauce. I did my chopping last night in anticipation of less available time today.

Set the meat aside and sautee the onion, peppers, mushrooms in the same skillet till the mushroom liquid has cooked off and everything is nice and soft. Set these aside for a few minutes, too.

In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs and mix with the Ricotta, the Parmesan and half the Mozzarella. Pull out your 9X13 casserole pan(s) and line up all the ingredients on the counter for the assembly fun. One of the things about making lasagna is that you will use just about every inch of available counter space and get lots of pots, pans and bowls dirty, but somehow it is worth all the clean-up. Here's what my kitchen looked like at about this point.



Take your pan and spread 1/2 cup of the sauce on the bottom. Make sure for this and all other layers that you spread the ingredient all the way out to the edges and corners. Put a layer of the uncooked noodles on top of it. Trust me, you don't want to boil the noodles. You have enough pans dirty already, and pre-boiling them will just get them overcooked. I can usually fit three noodles across, then I break one just long enough so I can fit it on the end of the pan going the other direction. Spread 1 cup of the sauce on top of the noodles, then half of the cheese mixture on top of that. Spread out your meat as your next layer, then if you're using sliced zucchini and/or eggplant, a layer of those. Add another layer of noodles. This time, put the sideways noodle on the other end of the pan for better stacking balance. Another layer of sauce, another layer of cheesy stuff, then spread out your sauteed veggies. If you have more zucchini or eggplant, add those now, or a layer of spinach would be fine too. Top with one more layer of noodles and another cup of sauce.

If you're cooking for someone allergic to dairy, you will have skipped the cheese layers, or substituted some kind of soy product if you like (I've never tried the soy though, so I can't guarantee how it will work). If you're dealing with an egg allergy, you could still use the cheese layer, just leave out the eggs. It's okay, really, I promise! Julie gets it without the cheese layers at all, and she snarfs it down like it's the best thing ever.

This next step is important. Cover tightly with foil. You want to hold all the moisture in there so that the noodles get cooked. At this point, you can stick the whole thing in the fridge for up to 24 hours if you're assembling ahead of time, or even stick it in the freezer if you're making an extra pan for next month. I sometimes make an extra one in a disposeable pan and take it to someone with a new baby or an illness in the family. When you're ready to eat, bake for one hour at 350, a little longer if it was frozen. You want it to be hot and bubbly and the noodles tender. Take it out and remove the foil. If you're using cheese, sprinkle another cup or so of Mozzarella on top and stick it back in the oven till the cheese is melted. Bring it back out and let it sit for at least five minutes to sort of solidify before cutting into it.

Here's what tonight's cheesy version looked like:



Here's what Julie's version looked like:



And here's some on the plate - YUM!



A couple of other tips - do as much cleanup of the prep dishes as you can while it's in the oven, because you will still have a pan or two and the leftovers to deal with after dinner. This recipe makes about 12 servings per pan, a few less if you leave out the dairy layers or have gigantic appetites. I have a collection of the Ziploc storage containers, and I just go ahead and put individual servings in the freezer, labelled with post-it notes showing the date and either Lasagna or Lasagna-Julie so that it's easily identified. When you want to reheat, it's best to use 50% power for the first half of the cooking, maybe 5 minutes, so that it cooks through the middle without burning the edges. Also, put it on a plate and cover it with waxed paper first so that the plastic chemicals don't seep into your food, and so that the cheap plastic container doesn't melt.